The so-called direwolf , extinct over 10,000 years ago and made famous by the TV series “Game of Thrones” , has been brought back to life . This is reported by the American magazine “Time”, according to which three puppies were born thanks to DNA extracted from ancient remains and embryos developed in dogs that acted as surrogate mothers.
The little ones, born from three separate pregnancies between October 2024 and January 2025, are two boys, Romulus and Remus, and a girl, Khaleesi , who now live in a protected and secret area that has been visited by “Time” reporters .
The result is due to the American company Colossal Biosciences, which a few weeks ago also came closer to the dream of bringing mammoths back to life thanks to the laboratory birth of the first woolly mice , genetically modified to have fur similar to that of these now extinct animals.
The three cubs belong to the species Aenocyon dirus, commonly known as the enocyon or "dire wolf", which lived between 200,000 and 10,000 years ago in the Americas and East Asia. It is a lineage that separated from other canids very early, about 5.7 million years ago, which makes it a close relative of the African jackal.
The animals were about the size of a large gray wolf today, weighing up to 68 kilograms, but had larger, sharper teeth, capable of hunting and bringing down large herbivores such as bison and horses.
Researchers at Colossal Biosciences used DNA extracted from two samples: a 13,000-year-old tooth found in Ohio and a 72,000-year-old ear bone found in Idaho . Usually, cloning requires isolating a cell from the sample, extracting the nucleus containing all the DNA, and inserting it into an egg without its nucleus, from which the embryo can then develop. In this case, however, as Time reports, a different approach was chosen: it was enough to make 20 changes to 14 genes of the common gray wolf, and then transfer the modified genome into an egg. The result is three puppies of a few months, characterized by a white coat, more powerful shoulders, larger teeth and jaws, more muscular legs, and a characteristic howl.
Enthusiasm from Elon Musk , who published on X a photo that juxtaposes the cover of Time with the image of the wolf and the word "Extinct" crossed out by a red line with the image of two of the wolves lying on the Iron Throne from the TV series. In a second post Musk relaunched the same image urging the company to produce a baby "woolly mammoth".
(Unioneonline/vl)
